'We have to make the best of a bad situation'

Ashley Giles said that England must believe they can manage "something special" in the third Test after their first-innings collapse yesterday.

Giles, who became the ninth England player in history to reach 1,000 Test runs and 100 wickets, admitted: "This is probably a worse situation than Durban. We showed there we can turn these situations around. I'm not going to say that's going to happen or that's going to be easy, but as a team we have to believe we can do something special.

"Whether that involves winning the match or batting out for a day and three-quarters I don't know, but we certainly have to believe that or there's no point us getting on that bus tomorrow morning. We've had great success over the last 12 months but at periods during this series we've let ourselves down."

He conceded that spirits were low, but said that England were determined to fight back. "The guys are disappointed because we spent a long time in the field and again felt we let ourselves down with the bat," he said. "It's bound to be a bit draining for everyone to suddenly be back out there in the field. But that's our job, and we have to make the best of a bad situation.

"It's always different batting when sides get a 500 lead on you and the wicket can look like it's doing all sorts of things because you're under pressure. But we hope the wicket holds, because we've got the guys who could bat for a long time."

South Africa were delighted with the swing bowler Charl Langeveldt, who overcame the pain of a broken hand to claim 5 for 46 on his debut.

"It's not that bad because the adrenaline is pumping," said the 30-year-old